A Challenge and an Opportunity

On a cool morning you'll often find me watering - by hand - the big pots of dahlias, hostas and (smaller) cyclamen around the front door (Dixter Midi, if you will).

We have tank water only so we need to be careful doling out the rations...and we've just had the driest month for 27 years; and a hot dry summer despite a La Nina system.

Last year when I watered I rebelled against the chore but for some reason, this year, as I irrigate I'm thinking about the garden with an eye on losses and looking at holes in the plant matrix as good places to pop in, say, a few tulips here (under a tough ground cover), some nice perennials there. But always, always, the question: how to make the garden or planting mix look better this time next year. Yes, I know: drought-tolerant plantings. Very.

Interestingly, some recently-moved Ajuga was wilting just when our electricity was off this week (after that gusty day, so hard on the garden) and water hard to access. I was able to dribble a little on the plant - hardly any! - but magically the Ajuga unfurled from its misery and looked around with a wan smile.

Speaking of drought-hardy plants (and flowering now, when it's still so hot and dry), recent visitors pointed out `Cauliflower Plant', a moniker new to me, for flowering Sedum (above, with tall Drimia maritima); and completely appropriate when the flowers are still in bud. Yes, it needs cutting back in late autumn. Yes, it looks insignificant in winter (when hellebores are doing their floral thing, so no problem there). But I love the freshness each year of perennials, usually in spring, but in this case, in summer-autumn.

I have a very attractive soft pink form of Sedum, which ages to pale pink-red, in that less-is-more phenomenon that happens when you slowly multiply lots of plants from just one original plant (so less types of plants through the garden). It's very satisfying (and cheap!) and as I've moved pieces about, it helps give the garden unity.

A friend offered me some Sedum a while ago; from memory, probably a colour closer to red than pink. Would it suit the garden, if kept away from the others (in fact near the sheds, so it would be far from the hose)? And in time, a big group of just that one, showy and enlivening the rather sorry, late summer garden. A stronger colour would work well in this part of the garden, too.

I need to ask myself around for a coffee while his Sedum is blooming, and eye off the plant, to see how much I like it. No garden is big enough for a plant you really don't like. Even a fantastically drought-hardy one that flowers when all else is dry, dry, dry.

I guess...

Jill Weatherhead is horticulturist, writer, garden designer and principal at Jill Weatherhead Garden Design who lives in the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne, and works throughout Victoria. (www.jillweatherheadgardendesign.com.au)